DAIRY Crest this week announced a further reduction of 1.3ppl for farmers on standard Liquid and Davidstow contracts from the start of November.

With Arla having announced a price cut at the end of last week, a further wave of reductions among the big milk buyers is expected this week. Dairy Crest’s 1.3ppl reduction, means farmers on a Davidstow contract will receive 29.04 ppl for a standard litre from November 1 and the liquid milk price for farmers with all or a proportion of their milk price on the standard liquid contract will be 27.04ppl from the same date. Group procurement director Mike Sheldon for Dairy Crest blamed the situation with global commodity markets for the latest in a series of price reductions.

He said: “We hope that the dairy markets will return to a steady footing soon but, in the meantime, we will continue to work in partnership with Dairy Crest Direct to deliver a robust support package for all of our supplying farmers.”

Last week the company announced plans to axe 260 jobs from its “loss-making” dairies division. Dairy Crest buys around 2 billion litres a year from approximately 1,100 British dairy farmers.

Four hundred farmers in the south-west supply the company’s Davidstow cheese contract.

In July, Dairy Crest announced it had entered into a strategic partnership with Fonterra, the world’s leading dairy exporter, to market and sell two products for the fast-growing global infant formula market.